1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement of a bill discrimination apparatus, more particularly to easy opening/closing operation of a bill feeding passage for the maintenance of bill discriminating means, comprising optical sensor, magnetic head, etc. disposed adjacent to the bill feeding passage or facile removal of a jammed bill from the bill feeding passage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The bill feeding passage in a bill discrimination apparatus normally consists of a pair of bill feeding plates disposed opposite to each other by being spaced with a predetermined gap, and is equipped with a bill conveyor means comprising belts and rollers and various detecting means, e.g. magnetic head and optical sensor, for discriminating genuine or counterfeit with respect to a bill used.
A long term use of the bill discrimination apparatus causes contamination adhering on belts and rollers, which tends to induce bill slippage, or causes contamination on magnetic heads or optical heads which may disable the normal bill discriminating function. Furthermore, there is a possibility that the bills are jammed during conveyance through the bill feeding passage.
Such circumstances thus force an operator to occasionally open the bill feeding passage for cleaning belts, rollers, magnetic head and optical sensors, or for removing a jammed bill.
In order to facilitate opening/closing operation of the bill feeding passage required for occasional maintenance, there has already been proposed a bill discrimination apparatus in which one bill feeding plate is hingedly supported at its base end in order to be fixed to the other bill feeding plate at its distal end by means of a screw, e.g. a wing nut equipped with a grip. Loosening and fastening the screw by turning its grip was, however, is too time-consuming to contribute to the speeding of the opening/closing operating of the bill feeding passage for the maintenance or removal work.
Furthermore, some other bill discrimination apparatus have been also proposed, in which one bill feeding plate is hingedly supported at its base end in order to be fixed to the other bill feeding plate in the same manner but is fixed at its distal end to the same of the other by other fixing means such as various engaging pieces or latch mechanisms. In opening the bill feeding passage, however, such conventional apparatus requires an operator two different motions: one is to rotate a swing lever provided on the fixed bill feeding plate and the other is to lift up the swingable bill feeding plate. (For example, refer to Japanese Patent Publication No. SHO 62-215461 whose counterpart application is the U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,966 or Japanese Patent Publication No. HEI 3-10156 whose counterpart application is the U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,072.) Any of these is characterized in that two different operating motions, i.e., releasing the swingable bill feeding plate from the fixed bill feeding plate and opening the swingable one about the fixed one, require an operator using both hands at the same time, because these two motions are not incorporated with each other. Therefore, troublesome cooperative labor is required to open the bill feeding passage.